you can carry a concealed weapon with no training. That makes no sense.

That goes in WA, too, and that's scary whether it's young males, little old ladies, 40-something firemen, or military veterans whose only formal gun training was one target shooting class in boot camp or officers' training school. Probably the best-exectuted How-To book I've ever read (out of MANY hundreds) was on home defense with handguns, and the most powerful message it gave me was how much I still need to learn before I even think about routinely carrying a gun on my person. No surprise there, but it really highlights what an idiot anyone would have to be to "pack" without significant and specific training.

I completely agree. I had a similar experience. I took a weekend private course with an instructor who trained cops. It was humbling...I am an excellent shot. The reason I took the course was due to a very credible threat. After the course, I decided I was not the right person to carry a loaded weapon. It scares the hell out of me that many carry without the benefit of this training.

yes, many, like 98% of gun carriers have inadaquate training.
Even most policeman just qualify with their sidearms once a year, if that, and the shotgun and CAR in the trunk even less.
Wish it was simple point and shoot, and the right DECISION to pull it out in the first place, but it isn't.
But crooks can buy guns from a trunk of a car at 1AM, as can anyone who cares to hang out at that time in the shadows of a big city.
They will barely be affected by the registration laws, the only effect a higher price.

The only effect a higher price? This is exactly the point. You can buy guns for a pittance now. Having substantial penalties for being a criminal with a gun, and for selling to a criminal without a background check, will mkake a difference--as will a higher price.

All the more to make it a prized possession associated with huge status quo for the criminals with the guns. Let's glorify them some more, make more movies about violence and outlaws, so the kids get immune to that sort of stuff.

Somalia is like that these days.
Afghanistan was already like that last I was there30years ago.
These places are NRA paradise. Guns are sold in street stalls along with cabbages.
Heavily armed, dirt poor single men some religious fanatics,some not, were easy for BinLaden to enlist with his millions.
The NRA Is working overtime to create the same social situation in Wyoming or Mississippi, with the help of the far right press and the GOP Bush recession.

A very sad commentary in our papers today on the state of gun culture.

' A girl of 15 (Hadlyn Pendleton) who performed in Barack Obamas inauguration festivities last week has been shot dead. She was hit in the back in a park - a mile from Mr Obama's Chicago home - when a gunman fired on a group of teenagers. Her death was the 42nd murder this year in Chicago, where gangs routinely and often indiscriminately open fire!'

Neal Boortz lists four reasons yesterday's Atlanta school shooting got almost no national news attention.

"1. The shooter at the Price Middle School was apprehended by an armed school resource officer. (There have been at least three incidents where an armed civilian has stopped a school shooting; this was a school resource officer.)

2. This shooter underwent no background check. It would seem that he got that gun on the streets just as most gang-banging thugs do. Any new Democrat proposals for background checks would have had no affect on this incident.

3. Large capacity magazine? Forget it. The gun used was a small caliber pistol without a large capacity magazine. Again, the new proposed laws would have made no difference.

4. Assault weapon? His small-caliber rather ordinary looking pistol would not qualify.

The left went into overdrive preparing to exploit the situation for their own anti-Second Amendment goals. Imagine the disappointment when they learned that an adult with a gun in that school might – there’s no certainty – but might have saved some lives. Thus the left must wait anxiously for the next multiple shooting, While they wait there will be innumerable episodes where armed private citizens protect themselves and others from predators. Those stories hurt the liberal agenda, so they will be largely ignored."

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